subject: Why Should Home Windmill Costs Vary Significantly? [print this page] Home wind turbine prices can vary wildly it seems. Some are low and some are high - seemingly for the very same thing! With the plethora of new products on the market designed to appeal to the surge in green interest these days, it is important to step back a bit and assess before moving forward too far.
How do you tell the difference between the great deals and the nice shiny rip-offs? They all look good in the product brochure. They all appear very high tech but the prices can vary by 50% or more for what seems like the same thing on first observation.
Here are 2 items that make all the difference and differentiate these prices:
1. Are they vertical-axis vs. horizontal-axis windmills?
2. Are you mounting on a roof or on a tower?
First, are we talking about a vertical-axis or a horizontal-axis device? Verticals are newer to the market and cost more than horizontals. Vertical wind turbines are also less efficient than horizontals.
You need to consider carefully which type will work best in your particular application and which one you would like to look at every day. That is a factor of course - you are going to have to be looking at this darned thing so it needs to minimize frustrating things like shadow effect, flicker, and noise. Horizontal units are louder than verticals usually, by the way.
Also, take into account whether you are mounting this windmill on a tower or on your roof. This can make an enormous difference in the price you will pay. Towers are a science all themselves and there a lot of pros and cons you need to consider with them.
Adding a tower to the equation will double your cost but also you have to have a foundation poured and the windmill will have to be installed by someone with the equipment to do that. Also, the extra ongoing cost of maintaining a turbine mounted 100 feet up in the air will have to be figured in. It is unlikely that you will want to be working on something that high up in the air yourself. You will have to have outside help.
In conclusion, you need to be careful with home wind turbine prices. Manufacturers obscure the real costs through what they include in the prices and what they don't. You have to know what equipment will be part of the ultimate total installed cost and project lifecycle expenses like maintenance and blade replacement in order to get a complete picture of what a particular unit will cost.
